The Norwegian tragedy July 22, 2011 (reflections)

It came to me as much as I guess anyone else to think a bright clear Friday morning was going to be linked forever with the deaths over 85 or so individuals in bomb blasts in Oslo and on a nearby island where a youth camp for Norway's Young Labour party members was taking place.
To say it's shaken me to the core perhaps is an understatement as someone who has had dealings with Norwegians over the years and to which I have had enormous respect for how they shaped their society.
As shocking as Anders B Breiviks actions were and are, that's not the only aspect that concerns me.
Because I imagine of the terrorist atrocities that occurred here in the UK and also in New York people have linked Islamist Extremism to this kind of act and by early Saturday morning, the mass media had already decided they were guilt with all the fear and yes prejudice that goes with it.
But it soon turned out the person responsible regard themselves as a Christian and a Freemason fighting some battle against his idea of a Moslem take over of Norway and the reminder of Europe, but at no point did the media apologize for getting it wrong.
In Norway as unlike for a period in the UK, immigration and assimilation have been able to be debated openly without fear that 'the ruling groups' would shut down the debate which as uncomfortable as it sometimes is nonetheless has to happen in a free and democratic society.
The other aspect is that no one has picked up on the fact many of these young people were the brightest members who would of entered the fields of law and politics contributing to the direction Norway's society would develop -the only right judgment in my opinion Mr Brevik made being why he targeted them - and as such this is a huge loss and not just in terms of loss of family members as tragic as those things always are.
It is good to see Norwegians of all races and religions coming together in torchlit processions to say this man and his ideas will not be allowed to tear apart everything they have worked on since WW2.